1. Giving Voice through Reparative Storytelling: Correcting Racist Epistemic Injustices in LIS.
- Author
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Smith, Melissa A. and Patin, Beth J. H.
- Subjects
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HISTORY of libraries , *CRITICAL race theory , *URBAN renewal , *BLACK people , *CULTURAL property , *DIGITAL humanities , *DIGNITY - Abstract
This paper utilizes critical race theory (CRT) to identify inequalities perpetuated by racialized epistemicide, the race-based discriminatory destruction of knowledge, through the loss of cultural heritage and the limitation of access to accurate narratives. We introduce the term reparative storytelling as a way to describe work centering oral and performance-based ways of knowing and remembering that establish the evidence needed for dignity, healing, and justice. By discussing the history of library services to the Black community in Huntsville, Alabama, this paper explains how racism and urban renewal perpetuated racialized epistemic injustice by destroying cultural heritage and narratives of marginalized communities. We demonstrate strategies and tools that can be used to unsilence library history and give people access to their past by using counternarratives for reparative storytelling. We believe that the archive combined with digital visualization, humanities, and storytelling tools can help us correct historical narratives by honoring neglected voices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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